A cryogenic equipment manufacturer has been hit with dozens of lawsuits in federal court this week after one of its tanks in a San Francisco fertility clinic imploded in March 2018, reportedly compromising most of the 2,500 patient embryos and 1,500 eggs it housed.

Chart Inc., the tank manufacturer based in Ball Ground, Georgia, had predicted its product could fail if it had a cracked weld, causing the vessel to implode, as part of a list of more than a hundred possible failure modes in compliance with the European Union's Medical Device Directive, according to the 21 lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California surfaced on Law.com's Legal Radar on Friday morning.

Girard Sharp in San Francisco and Gibbs Law Group in Oakland allege that Chart is required to bear the societal cost of the defective tank at Pacific Fertility Center, whose contents since the incident have resulted in a less than 6% success rate for live births.

In addition to the weld defect, the tank's electronic controller that monitors temperature and liquid nitrogen levels malfunctioned ahead of the incident, according to the complaint.

"Chart knew its electronic controllers were prone to malfunction—or 'spontaneously go haywire,' as Chart put it—and estimated it had received a hundred or more complaints from customers about the issue," wrote a team of lawyers led by Girard Sharp's Christina Sharp and Gibbs Law Group's Eric Gibbs.

The lawyers contend that Chart could have recalled the tanks before the incident but failed to do so.

Adam Polk of Girard Sharp said in an email that it has been a long road for those affected by the tank failure, and this week's filings are an important step on the path towards obtaining relief.

"By the end of today, our firm, along with our colleagues at Gibbs Law Group will have filed 70 complaints on behalf of 121 plaintiffs whose reproductive lives have been impacted by the tank failure," Polk said. "In addition, we expect several other complaints to be filed today and in the coming days against Chart on behalf of others affected by the incident at PFC."

The cases follow a June 23 ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the Northern District of California denying certification to an estimated class of 600 individuals in a case making similar allegations against Chart. Corley wrote in the order that that individual cases would be superior, given that much of the evidence presented in a general causation trial would have to be presented again in individual trials and the "potential amount of damages at stake, as well as the personal and private nature of the claims, each absent class member has a strong interest in individually prosecuting an action should the member so choose."

The individual cases bring claims of product liability—both in manufacturing and design defects—and negligent failure to recall.

Chart did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

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